Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Bond Surrenders To Bourne


From cinemablend, The folks running James Bond have just waved the white flag and surrendered spying supremacy to Jason Bourne. HR reports that they’ve hired Dan Bradley, action designer for both The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, as their second unit director on the next Bond movie.

It makes sense really. Though Casino Royale was a success, The Bourne Ultimatum matched it in critical acclaim and surpassed it in box office. Casino Royale made $167 million while Ultimatum has made $200 million and counting. Meanwhile the Bond films have been under fire for years now, dismissed as outdated and bland compared to the much better, Matt Damon powered Bourne flicks. Casino Royale itself was almost certainly created in response to Bourne’s success, borrowing a page from those movies' books by attempting to add more gritty realism into Bond’s world. With the third Bourne film out and in theaters the Bourne movies are over and done with for the foreseeable future. Matt Damon has made it clear he’s not up for another one, which leaves talented minds like Bradley available for franchise cherry picking.

In addition to his brilliant work on the Bourne movies, Bradley has had a hand in the action on such films as Spider-Man 3, Superman Returns, Panic Room, and Three Kings. The guy knows what he’s doing. For all the praise Casino Royale has gotten, there’s no denying that the Bourne movies have kicked its ass in the action department. The addition of a guy like Bradley could be just what they need. Suddenly I’m a lot more interested in Bond 22.

1 comment:

Octopunk said...

Saw Ultimatum last night, and it's not as good as Casino Royale. Not nearly.

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